Desert Woodrat
Neotoma lepida
Summary 4
The desert woodrat (Neotoma lepida) is a small species of pack rat native to desert regions of western North America, ranging from southeastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho, south to California in the US and Baja California and extreme northwestern Sonora in Mexico.
Description 5
Desert Woodrats inhabit scrublands in desert and semi-desert areas. Unlike some other rodents living in regions with limited water resources, the Desert Woodrat does not have water-conserving physiological adaptations. The Woodrats solve this problem by eating succulent leaves, which provide the large amount of water they require. They often build their nests in clumps of plants of the agave family and prickly-pear cactus, which can provide them with both food and water. They defecate and urinate on their piles of stored plant material. Some of these dry and harden and last for tens of thousands of years, giving scientists a picture of what plant life was like in the region thousands of years ago. Desert Woodrats occur with other species of rodents, nearly all of them smaller. Their size and more aggressive nature give them an advantage over their neighbors in gaining access to nutrient-rich vegetation.
Links:
Mammal Species of the World
Sources and Credits
- (c) James Bailey, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by James Bailey
- (c) 1999 California Academy of Sciences, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?seq_num=668&one=T
- (c) sewright, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), uploaded by sewright
- (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neotoma_lepida
- (c) Smithsonian Institution, some rights reserved (CC BY), http://eol.org/data_objects/6625220
